To be saved you must turn away from sin, believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and receive Him as Lord and Saviour of your life.
Here is the step-by-step-process. First, you must consider your life and then turn away from everything in it that is contrary to what God wants. This turning away from selfishness and toward God is called repentance (see Matthew 3:7-10, Acts 3:19).
Second, you must acknowledge that Jesus Christ died on the cross to forgive you of sin. You take Him as your Saviour to cleanse you from sin–as the substitute who paid the price due you for your sin (see Romans 5:9-10, Titus 2:14).
And third, you must ask Him to be Lord of your life, acknowledging openly and verbally that Jesus is not only your Saviour but your Lord.
The Bible says that as many as received Him were given the power to become the sons of God (see John 1:12). So when you open your heart and receive Him, He comes into your heart, your inner person, through His Holy Spirit, and begins to live His life in you. From that point it is a question of confessing what God has done. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Does baptism play a crucial role in salvation or is it just an outward sign of an inward grace?
What’s your take on Acts 2:38?
Thank you for taking the time to answer this?
Hi Emeka,
Baptism is commanded for all believers but is not the method or mechanism by which a person is saved. A person is saved by God’s grace when they genuinely believe the gospel and repent of their sins.
The gospel can be summarised in different ways. Sometimes faith alone is named as the one thing necessary for salvation (see John 1:12; 3:16, 36; Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:9; Eph. 2:8–9), other times repentance alone is named (Luke 24:47; Acts 3:19; 5:31; 17:30; 2 Cor. 7:10), and sometimes both are named (Acts 20:21). Genuine faith always involves repentance, and vice versa. No verse or two could conceivably contradict such overwhelming testimony so acts 2:38 should be read in context.
Regarding Acts 2:38, repentance for the Judeans involved rejecting their former attitudes and opinions concerning who Jesus was. In faith they had to accept Him for who He declared Himself to be while on earth, a declaration that was confirmed by His resurrection and ascension. When a person recognises who Jesus Christ really is, the result is the desire to do what He commands. The first action that Jesus requires of a new believer is baptism (Matt. 28:19, 20), the outward expression of inward faith. The idea of an unbaptized Christian is foreign to the NT (v. 41; 8:12, 36; 9:18; 10:48; 16:15, 33; 18:8). Faith and baptism are integrally connected. Baptism comes after faith in Christ but it is the first Christian sign of faith in Christ.
Therefore the willingness to submit to baptism is an outward expression of inward faith in Christ (cf. 1 Pet. 3:21).
I hope this helps answer your question